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Interesting Facts
- Sun Valley is a wealthy resort community located in South Central Idaho. The population of less than 2000 swells with summer and winter tourists. Sun Valley is nearby to the town of Ketchum, another popular tourist destination.
- For many, Sun Valley equates to skiing. There are alpine ski ranges on the nearby Bald Mountain and Dollar Mountain. With its range of difficulty levels and breathtaking vertical drops, Bald Mountain is considered by many to be the best ski area in the world.
- Travelers to the Sun Valley region will want to visit the striking Dollarhide Pass, a mountain pass that rises from lush valleys to breathtaking heights with views of the surrounding mountain range. Near the pass is Carrie Town, a ghost town that dates from the mid-19th century.
- Nature lovers can bathe in one of the warm and revitalizing hot springs in Sun Valley, some of the several hundred in Idaho. Outdoor lovers swear by the restorative and invigorating power of soaking in a hot spring. Sun Valley's springs include Frenchman's Bend and Clarendon.
- Sun Valley is synonymous with celebrity. The famous and infamous travel to the region each year to ski, socialize and shake their moneymakers at clubs around town. Many celebrities have so fallen for the area that they have second homes amid the mountains. Famous residents past and present include Ernest Hemingway, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hemingway completed "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in Sun Valley in 1939. Other frequent visitors included Gary Cooper, Clark Gable and Glenn Miller.
- The Sun Valley Inn, known as the Challenger Inn when it was built in 1937, was a part of the first resort area and remains a top lodging option today. The Inn was home to some of the first round-shaped swimming pools. Photographs of the heated outdoor pools – and the steam that rose invitingly from them – were used to promote the area.
- Sun Valley proper is actually split into two sections: Sun Valley with the famous Lodge and Inn and Village, and the separate shopping, lodging area and golf course named Elkhorn. While Sun Valley was developed in the late 1930s, Elkhorn was developed later, in the late 1960s and '70s.
- Interestingly, the world's first chairlifts for snow skiers were erected in Sun Valley on Proctor and Bald Mountains. The designer is said to have gotten his inspiration for the lifts from electric devices that loaded bananas into fruit-carrying ships in the tropics.
- An interesting natural wonder near Sun Valley is Craters of the Moon National Monument. The expansive area of exfoliated land with volcanic rocks and a lunar landscape was made a national monument in 1924, and today encompasses more than 80 square miles of distinctive landscape.
- A tradition follows that ski runs on Bald Mountain are named from Olympic medalists who are from the region. Runs have been named for Gretchen Fraser, Christin Cooper, Picabo Street and Muffy Davis.
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